Code School, the online learning destination that grew out of founder Gregg Pollack’s longtime efforts in creating and sharing technical content with a developer audience, has now made the leap to mobile. With the new iOS application, developers can watch Code School’s over 300 instructional videos covering JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Ruby, iOS and Git as well as other popular… Read More

“In the world of cloud computing, APIs are the new currency,” Microsoft’s VP of its developer division S. “Soma” Somasegar told me last week. But if that’s true, then how can you best create an API for your services? There are a number of API management services on the market — and some of them sold for a lot of money recently — but you… Read More

Dear developers: Do you feel insecure because you’re only fluent in a mere eight programming languages used across three families of devices? Does exposure to yet another JavaScript framework make you shudder and wince? Have you postponed a pet project because you couldn’t figure out which cloud platform would be best for it? You too may suffer from Developaralysis. Be afraid. There… Read More

As we start using more and more Internet-connected gadgets that rely on voice input, the need for smart speech recognition and natural language processing services is only going to increase. Wit.ai offers developers an API for building natural language interfaces for their apps and devices and the Y Combinator alum got a major boost today thanks to a $3 million seed round led by… Read More

Docker containers are one of the hottest technologies for developers these days and all the large cloud vendors now support it in some form. For the most part, though, containers are associated with Linux servers. That’s going to change soon, however, as Microsoft today announced that it will add support for Docker to Windows Server in future releases.
“We recognize the… Read More

Apptentive, a company offering in-app feedback tools that allow developers to engage an app’s users, communicate directly, request reviews and more, has now closed on $5.3 million in Series A funding. In an unusual turn, the new funding round was led in part by SurveyMonkey, and will see Damon Cronkey,VP of Corporate Development and Strategy for SurveyMonkey, joining… Read More

Y Combinator-backed Lob, which creates a developer API that lets companies integrate printing and shipping services into their apps, has raised a $7 million Series A round led by Polaris Partners with participation from other investors including First Round Capital and Floodgate. Lob announced its $2.4 million seed round back in November 2013. Read More

Earlier this year, Amazon opened a space for developers in San Francisco to come and talk to AWS engineers, get training, network or simply hang out. This “Pop-up Loft” was open for four weeks in June. Today, the company announced that it is re-opening the space this Fall after tweaking the concept a bit to “make it even more valuable for you.”
Back in June, Amazon… Read More

Apple acquired TestFlight, a popular mobile app testing service earlier this year, and today Amazon is stepping up to compete with its own mobile app testing service aimed at developers targeting the Amazon Appstore. Called “Live App Testing,” the new tool allows developers to quickly distribute their app to a pre-defined list of testers before going live.
Test apps can also… Read More

POP, an app that lets developers quickly turn paper sketches into prototypes for iOS or Android apps, has raised an angel round of $700,000 from ZPark, Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups (which POP participated in last year) , and other investors. POP, which launched for iPhone first, also released a new version that can be used to create apps for iPads, Android devices, and desktop as well. Read More

Though the app stores continue to fill up with ever more mobile applications, the reality is that most of these are not sustainable businesses. According to a new report out this morning, half (50%) of iOS developers and even more (64%) Android developers are operating below the “app poverty line” of $500 per app per month. Read More

Yesterday, at Google’s I/O developer conference, the company announced a new way for developers to build apps that integrate with Gmail, via its brand-new Gmail API. Designed to allow programmatic access to messages, threads, labels and drafts, the API was initially misunderstood by some as Google’s attempt to “kill off IMAP,” an older email protocol that offers… Read More

A recent policy change floated by Apple caused a flurry of discussion – and concern – among mobile app developers. According to several public forum postings and other industry sources, we learned that Apple had begun to reject apps that included “incentivized” video ad viewing and rewarded social sharing.
Now we’re hearing that things have changed. Read More

How well the Android app marketplace on Google Play is performing is the subject of a new report from recently expanded app analytics firm App Annie, out today ahead of this week’s Google I/O 2014 developer conference. The report indicates that the past year has been significant for Android app publishers, as Google Play apps, downloads, and revenue have all seen what the firm referred to… Read More

Google is giving its apps and platforms, including Android, a big redesign, according to a recent report posted on Android Police, which backs up some things we had been hearing as well, but hadn’t fleshed out until now.
According to the new report, Google is working on a new design language focused on giving all Google apps a more unified look-and-feel across the web, Android… Read More

Ahead of a press conference this week where Amazon is expected to introduce its first-ever Amazon smartphone, the company is making a point to call out how much its mobile app ecosystem has grown in recent months. According to news released by the company this morning, the Amazon Appstore now has over 240,000 applications – a number which has nearly tripled year-over-year. In addition… Read More

Less than a day after Apple made its surprising announcement about a whole new programming language for building iOS applications, called Swift, a developer with just four hours of Swift programming experience under his belt created a clone of the virally popular game “Flappy Bird.” However, the game itself didn’t take four hours to code – as has been reported on… Read More

Contrary to popular opinion, iOS applications have more fake reviews than apps on Android.
According to a new analysis of both app stores from Apptentive, a company which offers feedback and retention tools for developers, 55% of apps containing fake reviews were on iTunes, while 45% were found on Google Play. The company speculates that Google Play’s requirement of a Google+ user… Read More